Landlord Left in £10k Debt!
A landlord, grappling with £10,000 worth of debt thanks to a tricky tenant, finds her story resonating within the hallowed halls of Parliament!
We’ve looked at landlord fails, so that we can learn from the mistakes of others, but now we’re turning our attention to tenant fails – so you can learn how to avoid them too!
Abusive tenant
If you’re a landlord, you’ve probably heard of the landlord whose shocking story was recently shared in Parliament, after a tenant left her £10k in debt and her local MP shared her experience with MPs, as feedback about the current Rental Reform Bill, which many feels lacks balance, by supporting tenants more than landlords.
Jan Childs is in her 70s and is a landlord of 3 properties, based in Shrewsbury, but one tenant has left her £10,000 in debt. So how did this happen?
Jan let out her property in Much Wenlock, a market town in Shropshire, thinking it would go smoothly. She has three properties in total, so she knows what she’s doing. Unfortunately, on this occasion, she chose the wrong tenant.
Jan describes the experience as ‘insane’, having racked up debt due to damage and rent arrears. But that wasn’t all, as the tenant was also abusive and Jan ended up having to go to court to sort it all out.
Let’s take a look at what Jan suffered at the hands of this so-called ‘nightmare tenant’:
- He refused to move his car when he was obstructing a contractor who was attempting to do external work to the property
- When talking to the contractor, he called Jan abusive names
- When Jane spoke to him about the increasing rent arrears, he was aggressive in response
- He changed the locks on the property without permission
- He was declared homeless and was put into a hotel, while still renting Jan’s property
Jan states there were other issues too – as if all this wasn’t enough! – and that the whole thing was ‘hugely stressful’. Eventually, she went to court and, as he didn’t turn up, the court found in her favour.
But the tenant has since done a runner, so there is no certainty at all that Jan will see any payback on those rent arrears.
What happened next?
When the tenant finally left, they owed £6,500 in rent, but it cost Jan another £3,000 to get the property back to a condition in which it could be rented out again. That’s not to mention the void period while the property was righted. All of which adds up to an eye-watering £10,000 of debt.
Jan approached her local MP Daniel Kawczynsk about her experience, and he brought it up in Parliament, stating that:
My constituent Jan Childs rented a property in Much Wenlock to an individual she got into a dispute with. He has now scarpered, owing my constituent £10,000, and nobody seems to be interested in helping her to retrieve the money – neither the police nor the local authorities. How will this Bill help my constituent Jan Childs to retrieve her £10,000?
Micheal Gove, whose Rental Reform Bill, has been read in Parliament in the last few months requested more details in writing.
Like most landlords, Jan isn’t anti-tenant, landlords and tenants rely on each other after all! But she believes that GOOD tenants should be protected by the law, while she fell victim to someone who knew how to ‘play the system’. As Mr Kawczynsk said – how will updates to rental law protect property owners as well as tenants?
Jan Childs feels that extreme breaches of contract – by either tenants or landlords – should be treated as criminal matters, rather than civil matters.
Mr Gove said:
It is always the case, no matter how well framed any piece of legislation might be, that if we are dealing with unscrupulous characters who seek to evade justice, we have to rely on the agencies of the criminal justice system to pursue them.
How can you protect yourself against nightmare tenants?
Jan was assured by the letting agent that the references were acceptable. Now, we don’t know if Jan saw the references herself, but this is something that we would highly recommend.
If you are self-managing, get a professional reference check done. If you are working with an agent, you still need to do your due diligence. You absolutely should trust your agent, but ultimately, it is YOUR property and the buck stops with you. Definitely take your agent’s opinion into consideration – after all, they are experts in their field – but also take the time to check things yourself, and trust your gut.
You have every right to see the references of any potential tenant, so before making a decision, request to see them and look them over thoroughly. You can even ask to meet the potential tenant.
However, it’s entirely possible that for whatever reason the references are perfect and the tenant… well… isn’t. You can do all the due diligence in the world, but sometimes people manage to look great on paper and aren’t so great in real life.
In this instance, it’s important to know your rights. Make sure you are fully aware of how to issue an eviction notice – as long as you’ve got all your landlord requirements ticked off, there’s no reason it might be put off in favour of the tenant.
If your tenant falls into arrears, we always suggest you speak to them first. It might simply be a blip due to some bad luck – especially in the current economic climate. However, if they are abusive in response – like Jan’s tenant was – you would be well within your rights to make a move towards eviction.
So there you go – while landlords can face huge fines for failures in their responsibilities, they can also stack up big losses when let down by their tenants.
